1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer software development tools and more particularly to a method for translating resource-based windowing data into native Java source code.
2. Description of the Related Art
Java, originally developed by Sun Microsystems, is an object-oriented, multi-threaded, portable, platform-independent, secure programming environment used to develop, test and maintain software programs. Java programs have found extensive use on the World Wide Web, which is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. These programs include full-featured interactive, standalone applications, as well as smaller programs, known as applets, that run in a Java-enabled Web browser or applet viewer.
Many enterprises have large investments in computer programs that were originally written for event-driven windowing environments. Such programs are platform-dependent and use so-called "resource definition files" to define the layout of windows, menus, bitmaps, icons and other basic controls that comprise a graphical user interface ("GUI"). In such environments, when an application needs a resource, it makes a request to the operating system to load and display the resource element. Resource definition files thus define the graphical layout for window-based applications. Java, on the contrary, uses native methods in its runtime to construct and load graphical layouts for an application. There are no binary formats, for example, that describe how particular windows-based resources should be laid out or generated. Java does not use or support resource definition files.
Enterprises that now desire to migrate applications from their existing resource-based window environments (which are platform-dependent) to Java (which is platform-independent) face a significant problem. The problem occurs in trying to migrate existing code from an event driven windowing environment (which uses resource definition files) to the Java environment (which does not). Before an application can be migrated from a resource based windowing environment to Java, the window interface code for the application must be completely rewritten. This is a costly and complicated task.
The present invention provides a solution to this problem.